goals

Hello! I wanted to write a post months ago and never finished it. I usually like to write out my posts ahead of time but figured I would wing it this time.

So, time to be vulnerable and open about myself. The last five years of living alone, I haven’t shown myself much self love. I am the heaviest I have ever been and part of that is because of my Gastroparesis. Well, a lot of that was because of it, because my stomach couldn’t handle most foods. So I basically have been eating nothing but carbs as it is the only thing that doesn’t upset my stomach.

Since the beginning of January of this year, I have decided to start taking better care of myself. I started with Nutrisystem so I could lose some weight. I lost 20 pounds! 😁

Their system is basically (if you’re a woman) your first week you are only allowed 1,000 calories a day. Starting the next week, you go to 1,200 calories per day.

Their meals are okay taste-wise. I am super picky so I only liked two of their meals. Haha! But I ate the food anyway.

I am now trying something different with my diet, counting macros. “Macros” consist of meeting a certain number of grams for carbs, fats and proteins while staying near/at a certain level of calories. Counting macros is a different way to lose weight by eating the calories your body needs. When I was eating 1,200 calories a day, that was/is a very painful way to diet. It’s not very much food and I was always hungry. Now, I eat almost 1,600 calories per day and am still in calorie deficit in order to lose weight. My daily macros goals are: fat 55 grams, protein 130 grams, and carbs 159 grams. It’s a very SLOW process, the scale hardly moves for me. But you know what? My clothes are fitting me a little differently than before.

If you are curious about macros you can visit here then look for their calculator.

I also decided the covid virus has slowed down enough to go back to the gym! Plus, it helps that I finally got the vaccine. But I am very happy to be back to exercising! About a month ago, I also got reacquainted with weight lifting. It’s been years since lifting weights and I forgot how much I love it.

I hope you all are doing well! Benelli says hello. ☺️

*I am not getting paid by Macros Inc for this post

It’s November! And for writers that means NaNoWriMo is here! National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) is a month long process in November where the goal is to write 50,000 words (boils down to roughly a 150 page book). If you are interested, check it out: http://www.nanowrimo.org

I started this a few years ago but sadly have not yet been able to reach 50,000 words. Every year I try but then fail for whatever reason(s), and end up being frustrated with myself. The last few years the reasons have been due to health reasons.

I wasn’t going to participate this year. I thought, ‘I’m never able to finish so why keep trying?’ That was until I listened to my friend/old co-worker’s podcast. You can find that here: http://www.sarahwerner.com/nanowrimo-and-you-wn-027/ You should check it out if you like to write anyway, it’s very informative. In it, she mentions that she also has struggled with this and suggests of maybe trying a different approach with it. Such as by making a goal you know that you can accomplish. Why didn’t I think of that?!?

Now I am feeling motivated and excited! I really haven’t set a goal to reach so many words, just to do my best. So far I have a little over 850 words and you know what? I’m perfectly happy with that. 🙂

Are you participating in this year’s NaNoWriMo?

And with it being November, the trees are beautiful all around us. Below are some shots I took with Storm while playing in the leaves.